1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system. More particularly, this invention relates to an image processing system using vector pixels that draws, magnifies, reduces, rotates, and transforms figure and an image, including a unit of data, i.e., direction information of one of 8 vectors, up, down, left, right, up-left, up-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right vectors, when a drawing is drawn and an image is processed in a computer program. The image processing system also writes, reads, and stores the data with respect to a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an expression unit of a picture, i.e., an image, used by a computer program is classified into a coordinate displaying a drawing and an image element (hereinafter referred to as a pixel) displaying bitmap. The coordinate (for example, Cartesian coordinate system), requires 4 bytes (2 bytes for X coordinate, and 2 bytes for Y coordinate) to represent a point on the numerical horizontal axis (X-axis) and numeral vertical axis (Y-axis). The pixel represents a color of a point using 3 bytes where each byte is assigned to a primary colors, Red, Green, and Blue.
Therefore, when location information and color information for a point is simultaneously and independently represented, 7 bytes per point are needed. That is, such a representing method consumes a relatively large amount of memory. Therefore, the method is hardly used, except in an extreme case. Thus, in general, an image is displayed in such a way that a pixel of 3 bytes in a rectangle whose length and width are predetermined is sequentially aligned.
Presently, graphic interchange format (GIF), joint photographic experts group (JPEG) and bitmap (BMP) are used as image file formats, and have the features, respectively, as follows.
Most of images in the present web site are in the JPEG (JPG) and GIF file format. The JPG and GIF file formats have been widely used because they have a remarkable compression ratio and other advantages. There are small differences between the JPG and GIF file formats, such that the JPEG file format is applied to a photograph or an image requiring a number of colors, and the GIF file format is applied to the remaining cases.
Specifically, the GIF file format is widely used for icons, etc., in a homepage since the GIF file requires a relatively small amount of memory when an image of GIF file format is stored based on 256 colors. All moving graphics on the Internet are in the GIF file.
The JPEG file format allows a photograph or image having a number of colors to reduce its capacity at a high compression ratio when it is stored.
The BMP file refers to an uncompressed file whose size is relatively large. Therefore, when such a BMP file is displayed on the webpage, it makes the webpage display very slow. In general, the webpage uses compressed files. But, as the compress ratio is increased, image contrast is decreased.
Compression is divided into lossy compression and non-lossy compression. The basic principle of compression for an image is to reduce repeated colors (contents) based on a certain rule.
JPG file is compressed with a lossy compression. JPG file format can display a color though 24 bits, or express 224 (16,777,216) colors. The lossy compression method is called this because an image loses its quality as the number of color of the image is repeatedly reduced while compressing. However, since the JPG file format can express an image based on expressible colors, it is proper to be applied to real images, such as photographs. Above all, the JPG file format has a high compression rate.
GIF file is compressed with a non-lossy compression. That is, GIF file format allows an original image file to be compressed without losing its original quality. However, since the GIF file format uses only 8 bits for color information, it can express an image based on only 256 colors. When an image, such as a photograph, is transformed based on the GIF file format, it means that the converted GIF image cannot be expressed in various colors other than these 256 colors. Therefore, the GIF file format is more suitable to process a user's drawn picture.
A Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file format is created by combining both advantages of the JPG and GIF file formats. The PNG file format supports the high resolution of JPG file format, the transparency of GIF, non-lossy compression, and metadata (additional information, for example, layer information, etc.). However, the PNG file format does not support an animation function, and has not yet been adapted by web browsers.
A computer aided drawing (CAD) application program, such as the well-known Auto CAD, displays a drawing in such a way that drawing information uses four bytes for coordinates. That is, due to the burden of quantity of the drawing information (memory capacity, disk storage capacity, communication speed reduction, etc.), such drawing program saves information for only essential points. For example, the program saves only the starting and end points of a straight line and the center point of a circle, and a certain reference point of a curve. Therefore, the program draws a drawing by connecting a straight line, arc, or Bezier curve, etc. As well, the CAD program minimizes color expression to reduce the quantity of data.
On the other hand, the bitmapped image used in the Microsoft Windows stores data in such a way that its color information of three bytes for each pixel in a predetermined rectangle shape is sequentially arrayed. Therefore, since the BMP file format has to assign color information to portions of a mono color, which are meaningless, it makes a BMP file increase. To compensate for such problems, various file compression technologies has been developed. Depending on compression techniques, the graphic file formats are JPG, GIF, tagged image file format (TIF), PNG, etc. However, since image compression must be performed based on the rectangle shape, it is difficult to display an image of a certain shape. To compensate such a problem, there is a method for transparently processing a specific color (GIF manner), and a method (MS Windows Bitmap) where a simple image is used in combination with a mask (MS Windows Bitmap).
As such, since the general and conventional image processing methods do not meet the trend where compression ratio is high and compression speed is fast for moving images, 3-dimensional graphics, various types of fonts, which are used in the computer application fields, moving images of games, mobile computing, and animation, etc. Therefore, it requires technology where direction information and color information can be simultaneously displayed and at the same time their data size is minimized.